


All the Lies I Have Seen

by stardropdream (orphan_account)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur's thoughts on the past and the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Lies I Have Seen

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ May 17, 2011. 
> 
> The prompt was for England on a ghost tour of London. It got introspective really fast.

Surprisingly, Arthur finds comfort in this kind of thing. He’s taken other people on the tour before, and they’ve never reacted the way Arthur does. Alfred had laughed at it all and called it stupid until the night fell, when he became terrified and had to snuggle up to Arthur’s side and keep him up all night with his night terrors and whimpers. Francis had seemed politely bored and used any dark corner he could to try to slip his hand underneath Arthur’s shirt. His brothers wouldn’t be caught dead taking the tour. Gilbert, in his own words, _could not give less of a fuck_ and would rather have a tour of the pubs in London (to which Arthur could easily accommodate him).   
  
But Arthur finds comfort in it. Not because the things he’s touring, or the memories he’s visiting, are particularly nice returns. But rather because there’s some kind of reassurance in it, knowing that even when the sky turns dusty blue, even when the years drift away to a place he cannot reach, even though nothing lasts, there’s the reassurance that things continue on and that he, above all else, still exists. The ghosts surround him, and he can see them lurking in the borders of other nations (he’s never told Francis about the few times he’s seen Joan, because he knows it would make him too unhappy, and as much as he fights with the frog, he would not wish that pain on him again. And he’s never told Alfred about the lingering ghosts of the important people he’s lost in his short lifetime, because he knows what Alfred thinks of ghosts, and as annoying as the idiot can be, he would rather die than subject himself to either Alfred’s ridicule at his ‘attempts to scare him’ or be forced to share a bed with a frightened ninny for months on end).   
  
Arthur finds comfort in saying hello to the ghosts, and, for some of them, telling them that it’s okay to move on. It’s okay to unanchor themselves. There are too many people who falsely believe that ghosts remain for unfinished business, but Arthur knows that, above all else, ghosts are only waiting for someone to tell them that it’s okay to rest. That it’s okay for things to dissolve and drift away. That it’s okay to move on. He understands more than anyone how important it is to hear those words, sometimes.


End file.
